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If Mitch Marner Really Cares About Winning, He Should Sign With The Golden Knights

Mitch Marner Golden Knights
The Vegas Golden Knights give Mitch Marner the best chance to win a Stanley Cup. If he actually cares about winning, the decision should be an easy one. (Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images)

If Mitch Marner Really Cares About Winning, He Should Sign With The Golden Knights

Hey, Mitch Marner. Do you actually care about winning like you claim you do? If the answer is yes, his upcoming free agency decision should be an easy one. The Vegas Golden Knights don’t just represent the best fit for Marner, they also give him the best chance to win a cup too.

Marner, 28, will likely take him the biggest contract in free agency this Summer. If he wants to take every last dollar, I’m sure the Ducks will fork it over, given that they have so much cap space they can literally light some on fire if they want to.

At the end of the day, Vegas only has $9.6 million in cap space this Summer (click here for my offseason guide). That’s with guys like Reilly Smith, Brandon Saad, Victor Olofsson, and Tanner Pearson sitting out there in the open market. Nic Hague and Alexander Holtz are also RFA’s. Vegas is going to draw a line in the sand for where they’re willing to go. Would Marner take $11 million AAV in no-state tax Nevada while simultaneously setting the ground work for Jack Eichel to top that number on his next extension? That’s probably the only way this works.

The pathway is really easy. You pluck a guy like Adin Hill and maybe even Nic Roy off the roster to free up money. Your top line is Eichel and Marner with Ivan Barbashev as the enforcer. The second line with Hertl and Dorofeyev is locked in for the most part. A potential third line of Smith, William Karlsson, and Mark Stone is as good as it gets. The D core you have is as good as it gets. A winger like Marner could be the missing piece to winning another Cup.

If Marner’s free agency decision is about winning, his decision should be an easy one. Find a way to sign with Vegas. Any other decision, it will be clear that money was the deciding factor because no other landing spot gives him a chance to realistically compete for a Cup during his prime window.

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